Jean Paul Gaultier’s Spring/Summer 1988 Modern Retro collection blends vintage tailoring with 1980s corporate fashion. It updates classic suits with sharper silhouettes and a more contemporary edge.
- Collection: Modern Retros
- Season: Spring/Summer 1988
- Location: Paris – Cirque d’Hiver
- Theme: 1980s corporate power dressing fused with vintage tailoring
Farida Khelfa, Inès de La Fressange
This suit jacket from Junior Gaultier’s “Modern Retros” collection has everything for me. From a distance, it has a casual stylishness for when you want to be smart, but not stuffy. Close up, a playful disregard for convention with pinstripes, not only far thicker than the accepted 1⁄30 inch but in the shape of bones from the human body. The sporty mesh lining that is also used in other items from the collection further challenges the style of traditional suit jackets and tailoring.
This repeating pinstripe pattern incorporates an occasional dot and is topped by a skeletal hand. The uniformity is broken up with the hand at a jaunty angle, which, in my opinion, looks like EEG oscillations. I have a sportier jacket using the same material, and ‘The Concierge is on the Staircase” offered a matching pair of leggings with the bones pattern.
Shoulder pads of the 80s
The 80s shoulder pads do it for me, making it one of my favourite Junior Gaultier items. This exaggerated shoulder silhouette was everywhere you looked during the eighties, initially used by women for female empowerment, to defeminise their top half and give them the physical space of men. In the workplace, shoulder pads symbolised equality for women, challenging men for the pay, respect and stature they deserved.
Cirque d’Hiver is an iconic venue
Jean Paul Gaultier’s Spring/Summer 1988 collection was unveiled at a show at the Cirque d’Hiver in Paris, a historic circus venue with a domed roof resembling a big top tent. The photograph below depicts the venue’s scale, which originally accommodated an audience of 4,000 people, with the crowd arranged on red velvet seats fashioned like an indoor Colosseum. Gaultier also showcased his magic at this historic arena, the world’s oldest circus still in operation, in 1985, 1991, and 1992.
Metal plating as a decorative theme
One of my favourite Junior Gaultier pieces is a boxy jacket with stainless-steel pocket flaps that make a statement despite their lack of functionality; I like how the buttons are soldered to the metal pocket flaps. There is also a version of the jacket with steel plating on the front panels, giving it an armoured look.
Jean Paul Gaultier’s “Les Rock Stars” collection from Autumn/Winter 1987–88, which featured metal epaulettes and codpieces, could well have been the prototype for this usage of metal as a decorative theme.
Cropping the classics
Gaultier took the classic Perfecto biker jacket and gave it the cropped cut of a matador’s chaquetilla jacket, reflecting his signature blend of rebellion, individuality, and high-fashion craftsmanship. Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode, as well as Pete Burns, favoured this jacket.
